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Like a Rolling Stone

A CFA course examines the cultural clout of the world's greatest rock band

By Cynthia K. Buccini

A barefoot Lorne Svarc strides into the center of a performance room at the College of Fine Arts wearing a pair of belted red shorts over black leggings, the Canadian flag draped on his back and an electric guitar slung around his neck. Svarc (CAS'08) introduces his bandmates, guitarist Ashley Rigazio (COM'08), clad in a St. Paulie Girl beer uniform and a pink feather boa, and drummer Matt Dubroff (COM'08), in a banana costume.

"Hello, Cleveland. I am tone deaf," Svarc hollers at a tittering crowd of more than sixty students. Sweeping his arm in Rigazio's direction, he adds, "She does not know how to play the guitar. And the bloody Banana Man cannot play the drums." He means it, too. Svarc throws his head back and the group launches into an earsplitting punk version of the Rolling Stones country song "Dead Flowers." As the song drives toward its finale, Dubroff moves from behind the drums, lifts a guitar over his head, hurls it to the floor, and stomps it to pieces. The audience whistles and applauds. A student in the back looks on in disbelief. "Wow," he breathes.

No one would mistake this group for the greatest rock and roll band in the world, and that's the point. Or at least, one of the points. The three students were fulfilling their final requirement for CFA Professor Victor Coelho's course The Rolling Stones: Rock Exiles, for which each student had to interpret a Stones song. Five other groups and one soloist covered classics like "Play with Fire," "Under My Thumb," and "Sympathy for the Devil" during the December recital.

Svarc, a history major with a minor in theater, was taken aback when he saw an announcement for the course. "I was like, how could this possibly be a class?" It's not an unreasonable question at CFA, where most music courses favor the work of Brahms and Stravinsky over that of Jagger and Richards.

But Coelho, whose other courses include sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music, believes it's a natural fit. "The academic study of popular music has a very long history, and courses — even degree programs — can be found throughout this and other universities," he says. "If you go to the art department, the English department, surely there's something about popular culture. It's just that in music, at least at BU, we've been somewhat conservative."

His course explores not just the Stones' music, but also their place in popular culture and in rock history. "Popular music courses lie at the intersection of contemporary culture, art, fashion, theater, economics, and technology," says Coelho, a professor of music and chairman of the musicology department. "You can touch on many subjects that appeal to a wide range of student interests."

To Coelho the Stones are the ideal subject for such a course. For more than forty years, the group has either anticipated, or adapted to, nearly every trend in popular music, including psychedelic, funk, punk, reggae, rap, disco, and folk, while remaining true to their roots in the blues. "Examining the Stones," he says, "is taking pop music history in your hands."

In his lectures, Coelho touches on a wide variety of subjects — the British Invasion, the Beatles, the Who, the political and economic forces at play, the influence of blues and country on Stones music — and makes his points by using recordings, showing documentary footage, or playing one of three guitars he brings to class. He tells the students how the four Stones albums produced between 1968 and 1972, Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street, not only reflect the turmoil in the United States but see more to come. "From Watergate on, there is a mistrust of American politics and a feeling of politics being utterly corrupt, secretive, and unresponsive to public opinion," he says. "These albums anticipate the disillusionment. They see the darkness early on. And this is mainly why the Stones should be considered among the great, true artists of our time."

Lauren Pearl (CAS'09) decided to take the class after learning that Coelho plays the lute and the guitar. "He brings his guitar to class; it's very interactive," she says. "It's like taking a guitar lesson and a class in music history at the same time. I learned a lot about the culture, the techniques, and where the Stones got their inspirations."

For her final, Pearl, who has played the guitar since she was a child, performed the Robert Wilkins blues song "That's No Way to Get Along," which the Stones later covered. It wasn't long before the audience was clapping along. "The Robert Wilkins song just plays itself," she says. "It rolls on. The Stones song has the same feel to it."

Svarc acknowledges that he and his bandmates are not as well acquainted with their instruments as is Pearl. "So what were we going to do?" he asks. "Punk rock! And we decided at least we're going to have a good time."

That's the idea, too, says Coelho. "I encourage students to work in groups so they can think critically about this music on their own, examine the lyrics, and find multiple interpretations of these pieces and discuss the influences. And it introduces to them the process of making a song. They sit around and have to figure out the chords, understand the style, and develop an ‘attitude,' and they learn a lot in a hands-on fashion. For some, it's the first time they've confronted music on a compositional level.

"I mean, let's face it, it's fun, too."